Improvement in dampers



w. L. McDO-WELL.

DAMPER.

Patented Feb. 8,1876.

-1 PDT-RS, PHOTO-L THOGRAPNER WASHINGTON D C WILLIAM L. MCDOWELL, OF PHILADELPHIA,PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN DAMPERS.

I Specification forming part-of Letters Patent No. 173,321, dated February 8, 1876; application filed J annary 22, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM L. McDow- ELL, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Stove-Pipe Dampers, which improvement is fully set forth and described in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the upper side of the damper-plate; Fig. 2, a like view of the underv side of the same plate. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the upper side of the shank, detached and enlarged; and Fig. 4 a vertical longitudinal section of Fig. 3.

My improvement relates to those stove-pipe dampers, in which the shank for supporting and operating the plate has to be inserted from the outer side of the pipe into position with the plate, while the latter is in the inside'of the pipe, and, therefore, generally not visible, and attended with delay and difficulty in properly adjusting the plate and shank together in relation to the pipe, or

' so that the transverse handle of the shank will have its'upper side in the same plane with the upper side of the plate, and thus plainly indicate the position of the latter by the position of the former; and the object of my invention is to remedy. the said difficulty and delay by constructing the plate and shank in such a manner that the latter cannot be inserted into proper connection with the former in the pipe in any other manner than the proper one,'as will be hereinafter explained. The upper side of the plate A (see Fig. 1-) has,in a die-metrical line, a sunken groove, a, between two large through-holes, 2 2, and between the outer edge of said plate A and each of the said througl1-holes 2 2 there is an elevation, a a, the under side of each of which forms a rectangular groove in a diametrical line with the reversed; groove a, so that by placing ones eye to one of the grooves at the edge of the plate A and looking through it and the opposite one, a rectangular-passage ,will be perceived through the plate, in a dia- 1 metrical line, with the exception that the middle groove a has a small portion of its angle cut off by a narrow flat surface, 3, which extends from end to end of said groove. In

Fig. 2 the under or opposite sides of the same plate and angular grooves are shown. At the upper side of the plate (see Fig. l) the inner edge of each of the two raised grooves aHt slopes'upward towardthe perimeter of the plate, or from the hole 2, and the two outer the parting-line between the sand in the said coping and the drag of the flask, the latter portion of the flask at the same time retaining the pattern with that side upward which is shown in Fig. 1, until required to he lifted out of the sand, which can be,done with facility, without breaking the sand or. otherwise impairing the matrice. The shank B (see Figs. 3 and 4) is a straight bar of iron cast with'a transverse handle, b, at its front end,

and a screw-thread for the reception of a v screw'nut at its rear end I). The shank B, from its shoulder 3 to the screw b, is square in its transverse section from 3 to 4, and from 4 to the screw b the upper and lower angles are cut away, as shown in the two figures 3 and 4, so as to cause this portion of said shank to correspond in its transverse section with the groove a of the plate A. The narrow flat surfaces 5 5 produced on the shank from 4 to the screw 12 are each in the same horizontal plane of the handle b, and, consequently, in introducingthe shank into the grooves of the plate, if the handle I) of the former he held in the same plane with that of the latter A, the said shank will readily pass through the plate and allow a screw-nut to be applied over its projecting end outside of the stove-pipe, (not shown,) and thus secure the damper, so that it can be adjusted to any position required as such; but if it be attempted to introduce the shank while holding its handle at any other position than in the same plane with that of the plate A, the full angle of either the right or left side of the shank will move along upon theflat portion 3 of the groove a, and, consequently, the screw end of the shank will be raised and prevented from entering throughthe rear groove a of the plate A, and thus demonstrate to the operator the wrong position of the said damperplate without seeing the same, and at the same time suggesting to him the withdrawing and changing the position of said shank. The handle I), of the shank B, is cast with a depression, 6, and round holes 7 7 under the two respective ends 8 8, through which holes any round piece of wood or a pocket leadpencil may be introduced to turn the shank when hot, and this is preferable to a permanently-fixed wooden pin in a sockethandle, because the wood in such case either dries or burns loose, and soon becomes lost.

It will be understood, without any further description or explanation, that the introduction ofmy said shank B into the damperplate, both constructed as described, will greatly facilitate the required adjustment of the latter in a stove-pipe, and also that the manner described of sloping or beveling the inner ends of the grooves a and a, and of the inner edges of the plate around the holes 2 2, will greatly facilitate the operations of molding and withdrawing thesaid plate from the usual flask.

I'claim as my invention- 1. The combination, in a stove-pipe damper, substantially as described, of the flat portion 3 in the groove a with the shank 13, provided with the flat portions 5 5 at two of its oppositg sides, for the purposes set forth and specifie a 2. In combination with the outer end of th shank B, the handle I), provided with the round holes 7 7, the depressed middle portion 6, and raised end portions 8 8, substantially as and for the purposes described.

7 WILLIAM L. MCDOWELL.

Witnesses:

BENJ'. MORISON, WM. H. MORISON. 

